Toto isn’t resting on its laurels as it continues an ambitious touring pace

Success is fickle and indiscriminate. For musicians, it can come in the form of Grammy Awards, billion-dollar recording deals and one sold-out concert after another.Or it can come in the form of an episode...

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By
Susan McDonald
Posted Aug. 31, 2014 @ 12:01 am

Success is fickle and indiscriminate. For musicians, it can come in the form of Grammy Awards, billion-dollar recording deals and one sold-out concert after another.

Or it can come in the form of an episode of “Family Guy” devoted to one of your songs. Or characters on “South Park” that mimic you.

As Steve “Luke” Lukather of the 1970s rock band Toto says, it’s all a mark of success.

“I think in some people’s minds, we’re a guilty pleasure,” Lukather chuckles in a recent early morning phone call from a tour stop in the Midwest. “We’re a high school band that morphed into a Boz Scaggs band, that went on our own from there, and not always to great reviews from the critics! Look at ‘Hold the Line.’ They eviscerated us for that one!”

Still, Toto released one eponymous album after another through the 1970s, landing in the Top 5 for “Hold the Line,” “Rosanna” and “Africa” (the subject of “The Family Guy” episode). Touring constantly and generating a tremendous fan base overseas, Toto became one of the best-selling music groups of their era. That said, there was still a bit of a stigma, Lukather says, felt by those in America who admitted to liking the group.

“But, now the stigma’s not there and there’s a whole new generation out there that doesn’t know it’s not cool to like us!” he says, laughing aloud.

Toto is a band born in friendship and a healthy dose of silliness. Even the band’s name has a dirty little story to it, Lukather says. Think a couple of high school pals, a little bit of an illegal, rolled substance, and “The Wizard of Oz” on television and you have Toto.

But, along the way there has been heartache — the death of drummer Jeff Porcaro in 1992 and bass player Mike Porcaro’s struggle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig’s ddisease — and courtroom battles with former record companies. Each sidetracked the band momentarily, but Lukather says Toto is “on the upswing right now.”

The band is almost done with its first new album in 10 years after being constrained by litigation. It hit the road for annual tours starting in 2010 to raise money to help Porcaro. One thing they wanted to avoid in doing so, however, was being lackluster and tired.

“We wanted to do it right,” Lukather says. “We didn’t want to be those old guys, dancing around and playing their old hits. It was a pride thing to dispel the myth that that’s what we’d become.

“We come from a different era where a quality act means something and we still practice every day. We’re constantly striving to get better.”

The tours are about “making music we like and not following trends,” Lukather says. “It’s a very melodic, Toto sound.”

Their 2010 tour generated such positive response — and a number-one DVD — that the band is still on the road for 225 days a year and enjoying swelling popularity on their home turf.

“We’re more popular than ever in the U.S. — they’re like, ‘Wow! Where’ve you been?’ ” he says with a laugh.

Toto will appear with Michael McDonald on Friday, Sept. 5, at 7 p.m. at Twin River Events Center, 100 Twin River Rd., Lincoln. Tickets start at $76. Go to twinriver.com.

Susan McDonald is a regular contributor to The Providence Journal. She can be reached at Sewsoo1@verizon.net.